FROM THE QUESTIONED BORDER TO THE BUILT BORDER. IBERISM AND NATIONAL-STATE IN THE XIX CENTURY

Abstract

In the mid-19th century, two opposing or complementary views to understand the border came together in the peninsular public space. On the one hand, the Iberian approaches which, supported in geographic studies and reconnaissance trips, questioned the existence of the natural border, interpreted as a monarchical construct based on historical contingencies, not in the common body of the Peninsula. On the other hand, the advancement of the process of
nationalization and consolidation of liberal States, in addition to the new cartographic developments led to a growing interest in delimit the border accurately and on-the-spot in order to exercise sovereignty over the territory and prevent practices of proximity between the bordering populations.